26th May 2019 - Andrew

We wake, both feeling a bit rough, but head about our plans. Ikaria is green and has water! I hire us a car and we get some excessive breakfast by the docks - this place is quiet and slow on a Saturday morning. - everyone looks hung over and speaks greek around us.

We drive to Nas - the roads are tiny and slow but the views are amazing and there are no crazy tourists on quads or buses.

We find Thea’s place easily enough - an easy traveller’s place - tiny room with an amazing views - sea breezes instead of air conditioning and no formalities beyond a handshake and exchange of first names - our kind of people. We settle and sleep for a few hours - we’re both feeling the physicality of our last day but wake more ready and head down to the nearby beach cove.

This turns out to be a spectacular rocky beach cove with an ancient temple to Artemis along the river. We paddle and explore and take photos and slowly climb up the rocks back to Thea’s where we drink the dark red wine they make themselves and eat simple food (the feta is brilliant).

We watch the sunset and play bananagram and cards with red wine and water. Some greeks and other guests chattering behind us in a mixture of languages (english/greek/french etc) and the growing darkness over the sea spreads out before us. Then bed.

26th May 2019 - Cara

As Andrew says Ikaria is so green compared to the other islands we’ve seen. It almost looks tropical. The harbour is really as quiet as it seemed last night. Evdilos is the second largest town on Ikaria but doesn’t seem to have much going on which is lovely. There are three or four restaurants around the harbour, the car hire, a few travel agents but most places aren’t open.

The only non-greek is the man who hands over our car to us - he’s a brash American which feels a bit odd.

The roads are also mostly empty. Later someone tells us that Ikaria is basically a big mountain range with people living on the coast around it. This seems to be true. Nas is barely a village - it has no shops but 5 / 6 restaurants, a pottery studio, a few accommodations and a few houses. It sits on a bend in the road that sweeps up into a ravine with water flowing down! So different to the waterless islands. We can drink the tap water here! There is also Nas beach which is famous and picturesque. Nas beach is at the bottom of the cliffs with stone stairs taking you down. The ravine meets it - green biotic swampy fresh water meets rough sea waves with a pebble beach in between.

Thea is lovely and vague. As Andrew says, the rooms are tiny but with magnificent views. We have a tiny fridge, kettle and table - the bed takes up the rest of the space. The bathroom has a loo, shower and basin with barely enough space. The water is hot and the balcony is large. We have a screen door and wonderful sea breezes, so no aircon for a while!

Wonderful evening - all their wine is homemade or made by a cousins / friends. I hear later from a couple of wine makers that “All Greeks” make / grow their own tomatoes, bread and wine. This matches a lot of what we experienced.

The menu at Thea’s is handwritten. Like many Greek places it’s divided into appetisers, salads, from the grill and from the kitchen. We choose fried zucchini flowers (yay!); feta Saganaki (feta baked with peppers and onion); pork souvlaki and pita with grilled squid. The squid is huge - just an enormous squid opened up and braaied. Weird and tasty.

25th May 2019